Stay updated with breaking news from Union electric co. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
Reply (Shutterstock) ST. LOUIS, MO The monumental power failure in Texas caused by unseasonable cold showed how extreme weather can push an electric grid to the brink. The average U.S. power customer loses electricity for 1.5 to 2 hours annually even before extreme weather events are taken into account, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. As the Texas experience showed, hurricanes, snowstorms, heat waves and other extreme weather events can make such outages dramatically worse. Customers in Missouri state experienced 4.25 hours without power in 2019 0.45 fewer hours than the national average of 4.7 hours in 2019, which is the most recent information available, according to the EIA. ....
Heat helping clean up Alton site Sanford J. Schmidt, sschmidt@thetelegraph.com Dec. 14, 2020 FacebookTwitterEmail A worker tends to a pipe at the reclamation job located on the old Downtown Alton Post Office site on Belle Street in Alton. “In situ remediation” is being used to mobilize harmful chemicals in the soil and groundwater using heat. Once cleaned, the owner of the site Ameren Illinois plans to sell it. ALTON Ameren Illinois continues the complex system of extracting contaminates from the site of the former Alton police office on Belle Street. What started out with earthmoving equipment digging at the site has blossomed into a complex construction project that has some residents what is going on. The process is called “in situ remediation.” ....